This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Realo, A. Articles by Allik, J. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

The relationships between collectivist attitudes and elementary forms of human relations: Evidence from Estonia

University of Tartuanu.realo{at}ut.ee

Ly Kästik

Jüri Allik

University of Tartu

This study examined the extent to which collectivist attitudes predict preference for the basic models of social relations. According to Fiske (1991), all social relations can be reduced to four basic forms – communal sharing (CS), authority ranking (AR), equality matching (EM), and market pricing (MP) – that guide people’s social initiatives and help them to understand and respond appropriately to the social actions of others. The preference for basic forms was studied using a set of questions about everyday hypothetical situations in which the four different models can be alternatively applied. We observed that EM is the dominant principle in distributing (received) benefits: everyone should get equal shares (regardless of their needs or position) and nobody should have an advantage over another. In those situations in which people were asked to contribute, the respondents were inclined to think in terms of cost and benefit, insisting that the contributions should be made according to MP. CS relationships were mostly limited to family-related situations. Although people scoring high on collectivism showed an inclination to use CS and avoid MP relationships more frequently in family situations, the association between the collectivist attitudes and elementary forms of sociality was fairly small. It is concluded that the relationships between the use of the relational models and the collectivist attitudes are modest.

Key Words: collectivist attitudes • relational models • social relations

Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, Vol. 21, No. 6, 779-794 (2004)
DOI: 10.1177/0265407504047837


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?